Deerfield Officials Expect No Changes In Beach Parking

DEERFIELD BEACH -- Residents have suggested a variety of ways to handle beach parking, but some city commissioners say the best solution might be to keep things the way they are.

``We are trying to develop a whole plan for parking at the beach,`` Mayor Jean Robb said at a Thursday night commission meeting .

By the end of the summer, the city should have 621 parking spaces along or near the beach, including a proposed 217-space parking lot.

City officials say they are trying to come up with a proper blend of parking speaces, those that should be metered and those that should be set aside for residents with special $10 beach-parking stickers.

If nothing is changed, 319 spaces already metered will stay that way and 262 spaces will be set aside for sticker parking. The remaining spaces will be for handicapped parking, with about 18 remaining for free parking.

Resident Frank Cuomo recommended all of the spaces at the beach be metered and that residents purchasing parking sticker be allowed to park free at the meters.

Others said that people living in Deerfield Beach should get preferential beach parking.

Limiting beach-front parking to residents could be construed as discriminatory against non-residents and could stand in the way of the city obtaining county, state or federal grants to improve the beach, city officials warned.

``If you have such discriminatory parking you will not be eligible (for grants),`` commissioner Joe Tractenberg told about 60 residents at the meeting.